Snowpack Dangerously Low

[Joe Public]

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-st ... htm#167802

Any reasonable person understands the ramifications of this; we can expect a higher than normal fire season.

There is more than ample time at this point for the BC liberals to fund a great deal of fuel remediation efforts in order to reduce the amount of fuel available on the ground in critical areas near human development. Pretty simple; employ people to remove the fuel so that any fire that starts will be smaller and easier to contain and extinguish, with a corresponding reduction of risk to the local people.

But will the BC Liberals "risk" their balanced budget to do the right thing as they head into an election year? Of course not.

Perhaps the people of West Kelowna, who are at above average risk for forest fires, and who's mayor has repeatedly and unsuccessfully requested funding for fuel remediation from the provincial government, should ask their MLA to intervene and do the right thing to protect them.

[Gilchy]

What would you do to remove ground fuel from "high traffic" areas all over BC. Even if you limited this to within 20kms of cities, that's still thousands of sq km to sweep up needles and branches.

The cost and manpower required would be impossibly high, unless you're thinking of something else?

[Glacier]

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-167802-1-.htm#167802

Any reasonable person understands the ramifications of this; we can expect a higher than normal fire season.

There's absolutely no correlation between snowpack and fire risk. None. Fire risk is related almost entirely to summer rainfall after the snowpack has melted. We are not expecting a higher than normal fire season. Anyone who is is just speculating.

[GordonH]

There's absolutely no correlation between snowpack and fire risk. None. Fire risk is related almost entirely to summer rainfall after the snowpack has melted. We are not expecting a higher than normal fire season. Anyone who is is just speculating.

Lower snowpacks has much bigger effect on those at valley bottoms who depend on the water from the snowpacks, then lowering risk of fires.